模糊限制语的语用学分析- A Pragmatic Analysis of Hedges in English News.doc

A Pragmatic Analysis of Hedges in English News A thesis submitted for the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsSchool of Foreign LanguagesShenzhen UniversityCandidate: Gao JunchangSupervisor: Jia LuyiMay, 2012iiiContentsContentsiAcknowledgementsiiAbstractiiiChapter 1 Introduction11.1 Research Background11.2 Objective of the Study21.3 Organization of the Thesis3Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework42.1 Cooperative Principle42.2 Politeness Principle5Chapter 3 Literature Review73.1 Studies on Hedges73.2 Definition of Hedges93.3 Categorization of Hedges103.3.1 Semantic Categorization103.3.2 Grammatical Categorization113.3.3 Pragmatic Categorization113.4 Characteristics of News13Chapter 4 A Pragmatic Analysis of Hedges in English News144.1 Data Collection144.2 Pragmatic Analysis on Functions of Hedges in English News164.2.1 To avoid absoluteness164.2.2 To be concise and reader-friendly174.2.3 To enhance reliability184.2.4 To respect the source204.2.5 To minimize negative effects22Chapter 5 Conclusion245.1 Summary245.2 Limitations and Implications25Bibliography26AcknowledgementsSincerely, Id like to extend my gratefulness and appreciation to my dear supervisor, Prof. Jia Luyi, for her patient guidance and encouragement. From the starting of topic selection till the accomplishment of the whole thesis, she has been in close touch with me, assisting me with the conduction of research, in every procedure. Without her advice and continuous support, the essay would have been hard to finish and neither would I have learned so much.The experience of conducting this research and writing this thesis has taught me quite a lot, not mere the language knowledge itself. I firmly believe that all the involvements in this unforgettable study will turn into a permanent memory in my life, which will definitely facilitate my further study in the long run. Abstract Abstract: Vagueness is an essential language phenomenon in conversation. As a significant way to gain information, news has been playing a more and more indispensable role in peoples life. The use of hedges in English news report is unavoidable and has drawn great attention. Since its origination by an American sociolinguist Lakoff in 1972, hedges have been widely studied home and abroad. However, most of the researches done before are from a semantic perspective. This thesis is hereby to conduct a study of hedges especially on its functions in English new from a pragmatic perspective, pointing out that the use of hedges not only wont violate the principles of accuracy and objectivity of news report, but will better manifest the principles.Keywords: vagueness, hedges, English news, pragmatics, function摘 要: 语言模糊是会话中一种非常重要的语言现象。作为一种获取信息的重要途径，新闻报道正在人们的生活中扮演着越来越不可或缺的角色。随着新闻行业的发展，语言的模糊现象，模糊限制语的使用已呈现出不可避免的趋势，也引起了广泛的关注。由美国社会语言学家Lakoff于1972年提出，模糊限制语已被国内外专家学者作了深入的研究，但大部分都是从语义学角度进行的，从语用学角度进行的研究甚少。鉴于此，本论文从语用学的角度对模糊限制语，尤其是其在新闻英语中的作用的进行了探讨，指出模糊限制语的使用不仅不违背新闻准确客观的原则，而且能使新闻准确客观的原则得到更好地体现。关键词： 语言模糊；模糊限制语；英语新闻；语用学；作用Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 Research BackgroundFuzziness or vagueness is a rather common language phenomenon and also known as a typical feature of the natural language. It has been widely accepted that among peoples conversations, absoluteness is not advocated. In other words, people should leave room for mistakes while involved in a conversation. This comes to bring about what is called hedges, or vague languages. No specific boundaries can be found between concepts and meanings that different words convey. For example, the words “good” and “bad” as commonly used in communication have no specific extension. What kind of things or people can be grouped into good or bad? And also what kind of people is thin? There is not a certain criterion (Yang Huiling, 2001:84). When it comes to the term of news, accuracy, brevity and clarity are the words first to occur in mind, which are labeled the ABC principles of news report. Lv Shuxiang, the well-known Chinese linguist once said “The primary requirement of news language is undoubtedly accuracy”(Cited from Peng Juhua，1998:272). Since the 1960s, a new subject was born in the western news writingprecision journalism that engaged in describing facts by means of mathematic language. However, in the real news practice, there are no clear and specific boundaries between things, thanks to the restless contradiction movements and crossovers in the natural things. In this case, it is impossible to describe the complicated nature and society with precise mathematics. In response to the application of precise language, the other writing languagevague language was born. Early in 1965, the American prestigious mathematician L.A. Zadeh put forward the fuzzy-set theory in his article Fuzzy-setTheoretic Interpretation of Linguistic Hedges using the designation “hedge” after G. Lakoff who first introduced the term “hedge” in Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts (Lakoff, 1972:183-228). Till the 1970s, the fuzzy theory had been widely developed and applied, from the natural science to socio-science and to linguistics. During this process, many emerging crossing subjects were generated, including fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy psychology, fuzzy logic, fuzzy rhetoric, fuzzy linguistics (Wu Qizhi, 2001:22). In conventional concepts, the use of vague language comes in conflict with the principle of accuracy and hedge is supposed to be excluded from journalistic languages. With the evolution of language, especially languages in news writing, the old concept has been proved to be out of date. As a matter of fact, the application of hedge not only wont weaken the accuracy of news report, but to some extend will make it more objective when used appropriately. Accuracy is not equal to preciseness. Essentially, vague language has been accepted as an indispensable writing skill in journalism writing (Zhang Jian, 2007:436). 1.2 Objective of the StudySince hedge has great effects on the natural language, the application of hedge is an essential language phenomenon, not only in oral communication but in written language including the journalistic language. As has been discussed before, the necessity and significance of hedge in journalistic language speak for itself. Though introduced early by Lakoff in 1972, the further research on it was too far from enough. Following Zadehs theory of fuzzy-set, the scholars from home and abroad made a lot of study on the emerging subject. However, most of the studies conducted are from the perspective of semantics, philosophy, psychology etc. Not until 1980s did scholars begin to study hedges from the perspective of sociolinguistics，pragmatics，discourse analysis，etc.(Zeng Wenxiong, 2005). So far, the study on hedge from the view of pragmatics is too few to meet the increasing need from using it, especially its functions in English journalism. This research attempts to make a rather thorough exploration on the pragmatic use of hedges in English news, hoping to help readers better understand the English news.1.3 Organization of the Thesis There are five chapters in this thesis:Chapter One, the introduction, displays the research background of hedges and the objective of the study.Chapter Two provides theoretical framework for the thesis, including Cooperative Principle and Politeness Principle, which will back the argument in the thesis.Chapter Three tries to elaborate on hedges from different aspects, aiming to offer the basic knowledge of hedges. In this chapter, the study of hedges home and abroad will be discussed and followed by the definition of hedges. Also the categorization of hedges and characteristics of news are explored in this chapter.In Chapter Four, a pragmatic analysis on functions of hedges in English news is made. As the most important part of the thesis, this chapter will analyze the hedges appeared in the thesis and functions of hedges in English news from a pragmatic perspective.Chapter Five is the conclusion of the thesis. A summary will present the finding of the thesis and the author also includes the limitations of the study. Whats more, some implications are also suggested for further study.Chapter 2 Theoretical FrameworkIn Pragmatics, cooperative and politeness principles are two essential principles which make great difference in a successful conversation. In English news, the two principles target a better understanding for readers as most of the employment of hedges is guided by them.2.1 Cooperative Principle An underlying assumption in most conversational exchanges seems to be that the participants are, in fact, co-operating with each other (Yule, 2000: 145). The cooperative principle was first set out by Grice (1975) and it was stated in the following way:Make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged (Grice, 1975).Supporting this principle are the four maxims as follows:Quantity: make your contributions as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is required.Quality: do not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack evidence.Relation: be relevant.Manner: be clear, brief and orderly.In English news, in accordance with the maxim of Quality, the reporter should not say what he believes to be false or what he lacks adequate evidence for. As there are unforeseen situations and some objective reasons, sometimes the reporter would use hedges to weaken his responsibility for the accuracy of the information. The maxim of Quantity requests the information should be as much as is required, and not more or less than is required. But due to the features of new such as timeliness, the reporter cannot report all aspects of events. In fact, he conforms to the maxim of Quality that “do not say for which you lack adequate evidence”. Under this circumstance, news is more credible and closer to the actual situation with the use of hedges. The Relation maxim and Manner maxim stand in line with Quantity and Quality maxims as being relevant and concise require the reporter to offer not more information than is required. 2.2 Politeness PrinciplePoliteness concerns a relationship between two participants who Leech (1983) called self and other. In conversational exchanges, politeness is a routine to most of people. First put forward by Brown and Levinson (1978) and then developed by G. N. Leech, who proposed politeness and explained why people tend to use fuzzy words to express their intentions indirectly. According to him, the politeness principle is usually interpreted under six maxims.A. Tact Maxima) Minimize cost to otherb) Maximize benefit to otherB. Generosity Maxima) Minimize benefit to oneselfb) Maximize cost to oneselfC. Approbation Maxima) Minimize dispraise of otherb) Maximize praise of otherD. Modesty Maxima) Minimize praise of oneselfb) Maximize dispraise of oneselfE. Agreement Maxima) Minimize disagreement between oneself and otherb) Maximize agreement between oneself and otherF. Sympathy Maxima) Minimize antipathy between oneself and otherb) Maximize sympathy between oneself and other (Leech, 1983:132)Brown and Levinson (1978) proposed their theory of politeness which is certainly the best known of recent approaches to an account of politeness. According to them, face is “the public self-image that everyone wants to claim for him/herself”. An individual face consists of two aspects: positive face and negative face.1) Positive face: the desire to be appreciated and approved by others. 2) Negative face: the want of the freedom to act without being impeded by others. (Brown and Levinson, 1978)Furthermore, Brown and Levinson put forward the theory of face-threatening act. If you say something that represents a threat to other persons self-image, then that is called a face-threatening act. They interpreted this act like this:a) Acts threatening to hearers negative face: such as ordering, advising, threatening and warning.b) Acts threatening to hearers positive face: such as complaining, criticizing, disagreeing and rising taboo topics.c) Acts threatening to speakers negative face: such as accepting an offer, accepting thanks and promising unwilling.d) Acts threatening to speakers positive face: such as apologizing, accepting compliments and confessing.In most conversations, both sides will try to defend their own face if it is threatened or damaged. And for this reasons, they tend to use hedges to maintain each others face. For example, in English news some sources would like to provide information or lodge complaints on condition of anonymity as they are afraid that the information they give might not be absolutely right or the complaints they lodged might be unfavorable to a certain group of people, so the reporters will employ hedges like “Analyst said” and “A witness complained” to protect them from face-threatening.Chapter 3 Literature Review3.1 Studies on HedgesThe term “hedge” was first introduced by Lakoff in his published article Hedges: A Study in Meaning Criteria and the Logic of Fuzzy Concepts (Lakoff, 1972). He is considered to be the first scholar who studies hedges from the linguistic perspective and is also acknowledged as the one who conducts the most significant study on hedges. He defined “hedge” as the words whose functions were to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy from the angle of linguistic philosophy, like sort of. Along with the designation “hedge”, Lakoff also put forward the concept of vague language, both from the semantic perspective.Before Lakoff, Zadeh had introduced the fuzzy-set theory in 1965. The fuzzy set represents an attempt at constructing a conceptual framework for a systematic treatment of fuzziness in both quantitative and qualitative ways (Zadeh 1987). According to his theory, he interpreted fuzzy set as the phenomenon that there were no specific boundaries among the things in the real world. Under his enlightenment, a wide range of new subjects came out, including Fuzzy Mathematics, Fuzzy Psychology, Fuzzy Logic and Fuzzy Linguistics. Later in 1972, Zadeh followed Lakoff to use the new designation “hedge” in his article Fuzzy-setTheoretic Interpretation of Linguistic Hedges in which he analyzed English hedges (such as simple ones like very, much, more or less, essentially, slightly and more complex ones like technically and practically) from the point of view of semantics and logic (cf. R. Markkanen & Schroder, 1997:251). Lakoff accepted Zadehs fuzzy-set theory and illustrated the variable curves when “very”, “sort of”, “pretty” and “rather” were added to “tall”. He found that when different hedges were put together, the membership of the original fuzzy word changed in various degrees. For instance, “pretty good” has a higher degree than mere “good”. Lakoff demonstrates that hedges not only reveal the distinction of degree of category membership, but also can reveal a great deal more about meaning. Lakoff does not account for lexical use. First focusing on the cognitive aspect of his studies, he then revised his initial concept in the 1980s, realizing that truth-conditional semantics should be discarded and replaced by cognitive ones. With this new approach, Lakoff has attempted to account for the new view in the classical theory of concepts and categories, but there seems to be no further extension of the hedging spectrum, and he still remains rooted in semantic theory instead of pragmatic.Rosch (1973) made fundamental contributions from the perspective of cognitive psychology. He deals with semantic prototypes from the perspective of cognition. In 1975, Fraser analyzed modal verbs in pragmatics in rather a roundabout way in his article Hedged Performatives. He also dealt with the hedging phenomenon in mitigation and politeness research in 1980 and in the field of discourse markers in 1990. According to him, expressing a desire to perform a speech act (I would like to suggest that ) may be taken as a hedged, indirect performance of that speech act because it is taken as indirectly asking the hearer for permission to perform the act. In 1978, P. Brown and S. Levinson viewed hedges as a device to avoid disagreement, dealing with politeness in verbal interaction from the perspective pragmatic. They interpreted hedges as a strategy or an expression of negative politeness (cf. R. Markkanen & Schr der, 1997:251). Hbler (1983) published the first monograph about hedges in his book Understatements and Hedges in English, in which he made a distinction between understatements and hedges, though he still used the term understatement. Meanwhile, Holmes published several articles on the very concept “hedge and hedging”. He dealt with hedges from the angle of teaching and learning strength of utterance and as a part of epistemic modality (1988:29).In China, Wu Tieping is the first scholar to conduct research on fuzzy language. In 1979, He published his article Elementary Research of Fuzzy Language, the first article about the fuzziness of language in China. Later he published a book in 1999 named Fuzzy Linguistics, including many his own works on fuzzy language. In the book, he interpreted fuzzy linguistics in a simple way by quoting a large number of sources. Since 1980s, some scholars in China had begun to do research on functions of hedges. He Ziran (1985) then analyzed the application and functions of hedges in verbal communication in his articl